HBO has greenlighted highly anticipated fantasy series "Game of Thrones."

The premium network has picked up the project for a first season debut next spring (below is the first released photo from the series). Nine episodes plus the pilot have been ordered. Production will begin in Belfast this June.

From the moment the project was first announced in development, the series based on the George R.R. Martin novels has generated enormous, perhaps unprecedented, online interest for a series at such an early stage.

The sprawling tale set in the mythical land of Westeros tells the story of the noble Stark family who become caught up in high court intrigue when patriarch Eddard (played by Sean Bean) becomes the king's new right-hand man. The four-and-counting books in the series would each be used as one season of the series.

Unlike many fantasy novels, the "Thrones" series largely avoids relying on magical elements and instead goes for brutal realism -- think "Sopranos" with swords. Martin, a former TV writer ("Beauty and the Beast"), writes each chapter as a cliffhanger, which should lend itself well to series translation. David Benioff and Dan Weiss are the series creators. [/quote3f]

You'd think they'd have waited until the author wrapped up the series?

I've read the first 4 books (5 if you have the set where book 3 is split into part one and part two) and having just started watching [i:206e59cbf0]The Sopranos[/i:206e59cbf0] I can see the comparison is very apt.

However, I do wonder how this will translate to TV as there are huge sections of the story where you don't hear what's going on with a group of characters, only to skip back to them months later. Viewers could completely lose track of who's who and what's going on if this happens in the series. Some episodes will feel like a completely different show.

There's a lot of issues that are dealt with in the books that might concern censors too, some of which are critical to the plot. But it's on HBO so I guess everything goes :D

Everyone keeps warning that "Winter is coming" in Game of Thrones, but I can't remember the last series that packed this much heat. After putting its distinctive stamp on genres as diverse as the mob drama (The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire), the Western (Deadwood), the urban crime saga (The Wire), the period-piece potboiler (Rome), the horror-show bodice-ripper (True Blood), HBO now turns its extravagant attention to adult epic fantasy. HBO has found its answer to Lord of the Rings in adapting George R.R. Martin's enthralling, sprawling, ruthlessly brutal and magnificently entertaining series of page-turners.

Be prepared. Game of Thrones isn't a popcorn epic. More like steak: red-blooded and raw, with bone and gristle and a side of brains. There are supernatural elements afoot — a ghoulish menace from the icy wastes of the North, teased in a chilling opening sequence; a memory of dragons from across the sea — but the real magical wizardry here lies in the rich storytelling, embroiling a bounty of memorable characters young and old in a fatalistic free-for-all of dynastic mayhem.

With a cinematic sweep reflected in its brilliant world-building opening credits, Thrones covers a vast medieval landscape of geographic and thematic ground as it weaves an intricate saga of honor, family, treachery, revenge and heroism. That last quality is most obviously apparent in the embattled Starks of Winterfell. (It may take an episode or two before you sort out the various intertwined families and relationships, but the writers have done a laudable job of laying the foundation with lucid exposition without sacrificing the urgency of the narrative.)

Sean Bean, rugged and solemn, embodies the nobility of patriarch Eddard "Ned" Stark, called away from his loving family to serve former war buddy-turned-King Robert Baratheon (the robustly vulgar Mark Addy) in the "rat's nest" of Kings Landing. The king faces threats from his viper wife Cersei (Lena Headey) and her scheming clan of the wealthy Lannisters, including her dastardly twin Jaime, played with malevolent charisma by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. King Robert also must worry about invasion from across the sea by the exiled former rulers, whose platinum princess Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) weds a Dothraki warrior to align with his mighty army of savages.

So much story, so much ground to cover, so many fantastic characters — and so many Starks, including the delightful Maisie Williams as Ned's tomboyish daughter Arya. She and earnest brother Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) idolise their bastard brother Jon Snow (soulful heartthrob Kit Harington), who seeks purpose by joining the Black Watch guarding the fictional world of Westeros from the encroaching dangers from the North. Early on, the young Starks adopt a motherless pack of direwolves, and you will even come to care about these fiercely protective beasts as forces of evil converge to test the Starks' resolve.

Lest you think Game of Thrones is all starkness, rejoice in the scene-stealing bravado of Peter Dinklage as the wry "imp" Tyrion Lannister. The black sheep of his duplicitous family, Tyrion sees through all the chicanery and decides the best option is to drink and bed his way though the Seven Kingdoms.